Giving the Ladies the Vote

On December 10, 1869, fifty-one years before national suffrage, Wyoming became the first government in the nation to give women full voting rights. One reason historians give for this momentous move is that men in the territory hoped it would attract unmarried women to move to Wyoming. But when it came to statehood, Congress demanded Wyoming rescind its woman suffrage. History gives us two versions of the strongly worded telegram that told Washington that wouldn't do: “We may stay out of the U